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NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
Imperial Dignity Conferred on the Man
of Ajaccio.
I>:us VII Presents the Crown-No Ruler of Mankind Ever Confirmed
by Such Acclaim-Plots Against liis Life-Pichcgru. Georees
Cadoudul and the Duke of Enghien Put to Death.
Copyright, IMS. by John Clark Riilpath.
XV,— SERA-T-IL EMPEREIR DfckS
FRAXCAIS.
To the ancient order In Europe the ap
j irition of Bonaparte was intolerable. HU
, -vablishment in the consulate was a men
a • to all that survived of the eighteenth
. ntury. To the princes of Christendom
the Man of Ajaccio appeared at first as
an ambitious adventurer. Risen to power,
they esteemed him a peavenu and political
l istard. Now they beheld him confirmed
by the almost unanimous voice of a great
people. For him the Gallic enthusiasm
b'irst out In wild applause. By the Treaty
of Amiens he was recognized as the fel
-I>w of kings and emperors. The greatest
portent of all was this—that the peaces-
Me ratification of the consulate for life
tended to make permanent the results of
the French revolution, thus Invalidating
the ancient regime and converting its off
spring into stalk-horses and specters.
The phantoms of the past accordingly
r> sorted to conspiracy. France had blown
her feudal ghosts across the borders.
Some of them hovered In London. Some
were in Berlin. All places on the right
bank of the Rhine were Infested by them.
The descendants of the Houses of Bour
bon, of Orleans, of Conde, flitted dimly In
the horizon. They had their following.
Their secret friends suqatted In the very
sha low of tne Tuileries. As for open war,
they had had enough of that. Of secret
i: es and plots and crimes there was
n no end. The desperation of the roy
alists became all the more profound when
the consulate was seen to give peace, and
: justify Itself in the estimation of man
kind. In such a situation the life of the
first consul appeared to the disappointed
and despairing progeny fact that must be
destroyed.
The conspiracy which exploded in the
Rue St. Nlcaise was only the beginning of
plots and plotting. It is In evidence that
the agents of the British government lent
a willing hand to the secret crimes that
were to compass the destruction of Bona
parte. On his side there was correspond
ing vigilance, it was equivalent to death
for any to lift the hand against him. His
Immediate subordinates were without ex
ception loyal. But all the disappointed,
hovering at a distance, scowled at his ris
ing star. The years 1803-4 were pregnant
with conspiracies. In the midst of the
most untiring industry—consuming each
day and a large part of the night in un
paralleled application to the tasks of office
—Xapoleon was ever and anon distracted
and enraged by the discovery of some plot
against his life. His agents everywhere
struck back, in light or darkness, and the
bloody chalice was held to the Ups of every
intending assassin.
Among the plots of th* day that of
Georges Cadoudal, leader of the Chouans
of Brittany, was conspicuous. From being
an insurgent In the royalist revolt of 1790.
he had fled to England, where the Count of
Artois, afterwards Charles X., received
him with open arms. In 1803 he made his
waV secretly to Paris. There he eoa
spired with the disgraced Gen. Plchegru,
Napoleon’s old master In mathematics at
P.rienne, to destroy the life of the first
consul. The plot was discovered. Plchegru
was seized, imprisoned, and on the sth qf
April, 1804, was strangled in his cell. Ca
doudal, trying to escape, killed two police
men, but was overmastered, condemned,
and on the 25th of June, 1804, was guilll
toined. Gen. Moreau, the hero of Hohenlln
den, who had become a royalist, was ac
cused of complicity in these schemes. Con
victed of having knowledge of the plot of
Cadoudal, he was condemned to two years'
imprisonment; but Xapoleon commuted
the sentence Into exile, and 1 Moreau chose
the United States as his refuge. After
eight years he entered the service of Rus
sia. and In ISI3 was mortally wounded ait
the battle of Dresden.
The result of these attempts was far
roaching. At this time the living repre
sentatives of the demolished monarchy
were the count of Provence, afterwards
l.ou is XVIII.. who was at Warsaw; the
count of Artois, in London; the young Or
leans Philippe, afterwards the citizen
King, in Switzerland; and the Duke of
Enghien, descendant of the great Conde,
at Ettenheim, in Baden. All of these were
more or less implicated in the plots against
Napoleon. The Duke of Enghien in par
ticular was believed to be a fellow-con
spirator of Pichegru and CadoudaJ. The
latter had been secretly visited in Paris by
a mysterious personage whom the pas
sion of the hone declared to be tlic Conde
prince. Notwithstanding the fact that Ba
den was neutral territory,a body of French
soldiers was sent secretly to Ettenheim;
the chateau was surrounded, and on the
night of the 15th of March, 1804, the Due
d’Enghien was seized in bed and hurried
away to the fortress of Vincennes. A
court-martial under Gen. Hullln was Im
mediately ordered, and without witnesses
or other legal proof, the duke was con
demned to be shot. On the morning of the
-Ist of March, just before day, he was led
into the ditch outside the wall, and there,
by the ghastly light of torches, was shot
dead. His body was thrown, without re
moval of the bloody garments. Into a pit
that had been digged the day before! The
consulate, as well as the revolution which
it succeeded, had a sword of sharpness for
all its enemies.
The killing of Enghien created a tre
mendous sensation throughout Europe.
Europe had not yet learned that hte blood
Europe had not yet learned that the blood
of other men. The European courts heard
wiih horror and uplifted hands that a
prince had been shot, as if by brigands, in
the ditch of Vincennes. Abroad, in all
governmental circles, opinion was con
firmed against Bonaparte; but throughout
France the execution of the Duke of En
ghien was applauded as an act of just
'•-ngeanoe against a conspirator. On the
sdde of the first consul many apologists
appeared—some on the ground that he
saved the republic by saving himself at
all hazards, and others on the ground
that Napoleon had not been personally
■ csponsible for the killing of the prince.
Contain it is that the death of Enghien
hastened the transformation of the consu
late Into the empire. The seat of the first
consul was already in everything but the
uame a throne. Why not make it a throne
in fact? The facility of the French for
' hange rendered easy the project which
'he temper of a heavier and more serious
race would have rejected. Like the Athe
nian fancy, the Parisian mind files quick
> to the new. It hovers about the brll
nant. the extraordinary. It satisfies itself
with glory and enthusiasm. All these
qualities in the soul of the people worked
to the advantage and purpose of Bona
parte; but there was not wanting a meas
ure of opposition. The Napoleonic desire
soon found expression. Petitions began
'° be sent up from all parts of France.
Ihese were couched in suggestive hints
’o the first consul that he should consoli
date his power. Allusions about the ad
vantages of a hereditary succession began
to be circulated. Some of these were In
fo. 1 ™ the agents of the government;
others were spontaeous and sincere.
Gn April 13. 1804, the first formal propo
sition for the conversion of the consular
t republic into an empire was made by
I ,*[.**, in thc Tribunate. The measure In
j eluded the title of Empereur des Fran
i f ° r Na boleon, with the right of her
edity succession in his family. Though
. the influence of tint government was
, Btron ly devoted to the scheme, the pro
posal was met with serious opposition.
! The conspicuous voice of Lazare Nicolas
j *- arnot, grandfather of the recently as
| sassinated president of the French Re
\ public, was heard above the din of affirm
ative applause. But on May 18 the meas
ure was carried In the Senate. A consul
turn was promulgated, by which the Im
perial dignity was conferred on Xapoleon
Bonaparte, and the decree was at once
sent to the people. Another surprising
election was held, at which 3,524,254 vot
rpcorded their decision. Of these
3,n21,t>(3 were In the affirmative, and only !
-..579 in the negative! Whatever critical ;
history may say of the antecedents of the
empire, certain it is that no other hered
itary ruler of mankind was ever confirmed
in power by such an acclaim of his coun
trymen! Wit* good reason the feudal no- j
tion of territorial dominion hitherto ex- ;
pressed in the titles of rulers, gave way
under this imperial election; for Bona
parte was made emperor, not of France,
but of the French.
Notified by the Senate of the establish*
ment of the empire and of his own nomina
tion thereto, Napoleon accepted the trust.
The ceremony of the notification was at
Bt. Cloud. Josephine was also congratu
lated by the Senate. The palace of St.
Cloud was thronged on the occasion with
the distinguished and elite of France. Just !
after the ceremony was over, a footman,
rich in gold lace and scarf, made his
way into the crowd, where the Baron
t laude-Francois do Meneval—secretary to
Bonaparte after the disgrace and dismiss
al of Bourrienne—was standing, and said:
Sir, the emperor wishes to see you!" It
was the first time that that astounding
word had been applied to Bonaparte! His
tory for nearly a century has confirmed it.
At St. Helena he himself—offended at the
small-minded officially that designated
him as "General” Bonaparte—said indig
nantly, "I shall always be known in his
tory as the Emperor Xapoleon!”
The empire thus created was made to
date from the 18th of May, 1804; but the
coronation of Xapoleon did not take place
until the 2nd of the following December.
Practically, the change In the government
was not great. The stream of consular
power flowed Into the widening river of
imperialism without a bend or the noise of
cataracts. The coronation was a scene
memorable In human annals. Plus VII.,
conciliated by the late concordat, came
.willingly from Rome to crown the soldier
of fortune, and to leave on him and his
work the papal benediction. It was at the
altar of Notre Dame-—where the revolu
tionists of the Terror had danced the Car
magnole—that the emperor-olect of the
French knelt to receive the diadem. The
pope gave It; but Napoleon, taking it
from his hand and put it on his own head—
a thing most fitting to do; for he had made
It for himself!
Josephine was crowned with her Imperi
ous lord. Returning from Notre Dame to
the Tuileries, the emperor, on reaching his
own apartment, tore Off as rapidly as he
could the imperial vestments, and got him
self into his usual apparel; for he was a
man of buiness. The occasion was sunlit
with splendor, and all hearts seemed full
of life and light; all but one—the heart of
Josephine. To her what ominous signifi
cance was in that clause of the senatus
consultum which made the crown heredi
tary in the family of Napoleon! dire word
was that word "family” to Marie Josephe
Tascer. whilom Madame de Beauharnals,
now Imperatrice des. Francais. For she
was forty-one and a half years of age
epoch well nigh fatal to possible mother
hood.
Only slight changes were made In the
new imperial administration. All such
modifications looked to the unity and glory
of the empire. Napoleon preserved as
much as he could of the personnel of the I
preceding consular government. His two I
colleagues. Camhaoeres and Lebrun, were
appointed the one arch-chancellor and the j
other arch-treasurer of state; Joseph Bona
parte was made grand elector, and Louis j
the imperial constable. Eighteen of the !
great generals who had become such with
Napoleon In the field were made marshals
of France. The transformation swept over
the landscape like the dappled shadow of a
sunny cloud. The Christmas holidays of
1804 came to Paris In a blaze of splendor.
The Gallic world danced and smiled under
wreaths of Ivy and the flash of crystal
candelabre, and the mutter of distant war
was scarcely heard on the widened and
confident borders of France.
John Clark Rldpath.
SEARCH FOR A TREASURE,
Fortunate End of u Wild Goose
Chase.
From the Pittsburg Post.
Capt. Abel Jones was 50 years of age
and had retired from sea and settled
dowm on a farm In New' Hampshire when
something happened to upset him. One
night a tramp came along and asked for
lodgings. It did not take half an eye to
see that he was a sailorman and in the
course of conversation it was learned that
he had not only followed for many
years, but had met with some surprising
adventures in salt water. He gave his
name as John Drake. I was Capt. Jones'
nephew and living In his house. When
they had talked of ships and sailors and
gales and calms for a couple of hours, the
stranger suddenly turned upon my uncle
with;
"See here mate, you have made me wel
come and used me like a man, and I'm a
good mind to put you in the way of a good
thing. Send the boy to bed and get rid of
the old woman, and I’ll tell you something
to open your eyes.”
"The boy” strongly objected to going ofl
to bed just at that juncture, and as for
the “old woman," who was, of course,
my Aunt Hetty, she plumped herself dowm
between the two men with her knitting
work and grimly observed:
“What you have to say to Abe can be
said before his family or not at all!”
I don’t think Drake had any other object
than to find lodgings, but discovering that
Uncle Abel was rather credulous, he con
ceived a plan. He was only about 40 years
of age, and the fact of his being on a
tramp should have been proof to the cap
tain that there was something wrong with
him as a sailor. After many mysterious
nods and winks and chuckles to arouse
our curiosity, and after obliging the three
of us to hold up our right hands and swear
never to reveal the secret to mortal man,
he reeled off his yarn.
Aside from many other voyages, he
had made several trips from New York and
Boston to the West Indies.
On one of these Jrips, which was his last
voyage, he had befriended a sick and dy
ing sailor at Porto Rico. When the man
found that he must die, he told Drake of a
treasure of 3300,000 in gold buried out on
THE MORNING NEWS: SUNDAY, MAY2O.ISO3.
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in New York city.
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a King Leopold
'tm O* Belgium
A PPOINTF.D Johann Hoff
i \ as Honorary Member of
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' beneficial action of the
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Beware of imitations. Tile genuine *
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one of the Virginia islands, of which there
are five, lying to the eastward of the island
of St. Thomas. There was the usual rough
map drawn by a sailor’s hand, but Drake
had lost this. He remembered, however,
that the treasure was on Petrel island, and
that one must step off 21 paces from a cer
tain tree toward a certain great rock.
The dying sailor had not been a pirate, but
a mutineer, and the treasure had come
from an lOnglish vessel which was carry
ing the gold to one of the Bahamas to pay
a government claim.
I can’t remember all the particulars as
Drake related them, but he was a smooth
tongued and plausible liar and made out
a fine story. He was sure the gold was
still there, and he had been waiting to find
someone who would deal honestly with
him. My Uncle Abel drank In and believed
every word the liar uttered, but not so with
Aunt Hetty. She sized the man up for
what he was and plainly told him that he
was yarning. He pretended to be much
grieved at her suspicions, and when he
went off to bed he said he would go to
Kennebunk and try to find some ship
owner or captain who would be willing to
bring the treasure off and make a fair di
vide. There was $300,000 In coined gold, and
all he wanted for himself was $25,000.
Next morning, after Drake had retold
his yarn and added to It, Aunt Hetty be
gan to weaken in her objections, and fin
ally came to believe there was something
In It. Before the day was over she was as
enthusiastic as Uncle Abel, and that was
the beginning of what 1 have termed a
strange voyage. In the course of a couple
of days the captain and Drake went over to
Kennebunk to look for a suitable craft.
They found the brig Foam for sale, and
the captain drew his last dollar from the
bank, mortgaged his farm, sold off throe
cows, forty sheep, ten hogs and a yoke of
oxen and raised the money to buy her.
As everybody knew he had given up the
sea, this move of his was productive of
great gossip.
When it was known that Aunt Hetty was
to go along the gossip increased. Drake
got drunk and boasted of the treasure,
and so it came about that everybody knew
the object of our quest, though no one
knew just where we were going. Capt.
Jones was called a fool by his best friends,
but neither ridicule nor abuse had any
effect on him. By dhe time he was ready
for sea he was a firm believer that he
would return with money enough to buy
out all Kennebunk. and his wife was
even more enthusiastic. We shipped a
mate and four sailors on the "lay” plan.
Each was to have a certain per cent, of the
treasure If found. Aunt Hetty was to
act as cook. This gave us seven men, and
I went along as cabin boy. The brig sailed
for Boston, got a cargo for Porto Klco,
and we were finally off.
We were hardly clear of the land when
trouble arouse. Drake wanted to live In
the cabin and play passenger instead of
doing duty as a sailor, and Aunt Hetty
started out to boss things In a way to
give offense to all. The mate, whose name
was Furbish, had forgotten his instru
ments, and Capt. Jones had bought some
old water asks, with the result that most
of their contents had leaked out before we
left the wharf. When four days out we
had to hail an Incoming ship and buy two
casks of water, and within a week Aunt
Hetty’s economy left us w’ithout tea or
coffee. It has always been a marvel to
the seafaring men of Kennebunk that the
brig reached her port of destination.
i Capt. Jones was an old-fashioned sailor,
who made his way almost altogether by
dead reckoning. He could get the lati
tude of the sun at noonday after a tre
mendous struggle, but when he had work
ed out his sights he wasn't sure of his
position within 50 miles. The brig's sails
were old, the rigging sadly out of repair,
and her foremasts were so Insecure that
only about half the usual amount of sail
was spread. It was pure luck that she
ever reached Porto Rico, even though she
made the longest passage on record. She
was hardly in port before Drake deserted
and shipped on a craft bound for Liver
pool. The sailors disliked him to a man,
and strong hints had been thrown out
that if the treasure was not found It would
be worse for him. The man’s desertion
made no difference in our plans. Uncle
Abel and Aunt Hetty were certain they
could find the buried gold without his
assistance, and when the matter was talk
ed over everybody was glad he had de
parted, as there would be $25,000 more to
divide up among the rest.
When the cargo had been discharged the
brig started for Petrel Island. The Vir
gin group lay dead to the east, and yet
Capt. Jones managed to miss it and run
100 miles into the Atlantic before he fig
ured out what had happened. Then he
turned back, came very near wrecking his
craft on the reefs o< Sombrero, and after
many days came to anchor off the east
coast of Petrel Island. Drake had de
scribed a certain bay. While he had never
seen it, we did find a bay answering pretty
well to the description. The beach of the
north side of this bay was something like
the one he had told us of, but there was
no tree nor rock where he had placed
them. It was decided to go ashore and
prospect, however, and an examination
of the shore resulted In a stay of three
weeks, during which there was some live
ly digging. We might have remained long,
er but for the trobule between the captain
and his wife.
when the long search and hard work
brought nothing, Aunty Hetty called him
an idiot and bewailed their financial ruin
Uncle Abel fired up and talked back, and
they had it hot and heavy for an hour or
two. At last the captain said he was
going home. His wife declared she would
stay until she found some gold. Every
body was drawn into the quarrel and
Capt. Jones and three of the men took
the yawl and started off, and four of us
were left with the brig. I must explain
that the captain’s move was made with
a view of bulldozing his wife. He ex
pected to be called back and to see Aunt
Hetty knuckle down, and when nothing
of the sort happened he concluded to
coast around the island and make a fur
ther search for the treasure.
A gale of wind blew them out upon the
broad Atlantic, and for fourteen days
they looked upon themselves as doomed.
They had but little water and provisions’
lost mast anil sail the first day and were
within a week driven to cut up their
boots aad chew the leather. On the four-
teenth day, when all were ready to give
up, they came across the bark North Star.
You may have read that this craft, be
longing to Boston, came out of Havana
with the yellow fever aboard. She had a
crew of eight men, and she was hardly
clear of Abaco Island, when the captain,
mate and two others died, and the sur
vivors got out a boat and abandoned her.
They landed on the Florida coast, while
the bark, loaded with sugar, drifted out
to sea. It was this craft Capt. Jones and
his men ran across after she had been
drifting for three weeks, ami It Is a matter
of record that the four men, after sailing
her all over the Atlantic, and meeting with
a hundred adventures, finally took a pilot
150 miles off Sandy Hook and got the bark
safely Into New Y'ork. Capt. Jones got
SII,OOO salvage money as his share, which
was $3,000 more than the Foam cost him.
My Aunt Hetty did not believe that
Uncle Abel meant to leave us and the
brig, but when the gale came on all of ns
felt sure the four men had met their
deaths. We did not work for five days.
Then, feeling that the disaster hail over
taken the quartet, and that she was a
widow, Aunt Hetty wiped away her tears
and began to stir around. She still believed
in the existence of the treasure. lye had
failed to find it, because we had not looked
In the right spot. By her orders we
weighed anchor and coasted around to
the north of th© island. Then we opened
up another bay and cast anchor. The
beach was of sand and about fifty feet
wide. Back of it was a thick growth of
forest. There was a lone tree on the
beach, just above high-water mark, but
no rock, as described by Drake. Never
theless, Aunt Hetty decided that we
should go to work. One of the men paced
off twenty-one paces in three directions,
and we began to dig. When nothing was
found, we tried fourteen paces, then seven,
then dug up the tree Itself.
Asa matter of fact, we dug up the entire
beach before we left off, or at least so
thoroughly prodded It with iron rods that
we felt sure nothing of value lay burled In
the sands. We were working there fifteen
days before we gave up. Aunt Hetty
wanted to try another place, but the two
Kennebunk sailors had had enough of It,
and wanted to go home. There was a set
tlement of'tlsbcrfhep pp side of
the lslandi ami almost every day we'had
been visited by aboat. The people knew
what we were after apd laughed and ridi
culed. The Idea was to get three or four
of these fishermen to help navigate the brig
to Porto Rico where we could replace them
but as soon as they found we were short
handed they refused Yo ship unless paid $3
a day apiece. Aunt Hetty was purser as
well as cook, and she said she’d let the
brig rot at her moorings before she’d be
robbed.
<>ur great good lurk came out of a quar
rel. Aunt Hetty got angry because we re
fused to do more digging, and bail a Jaw
with the sailor and attempted to give me a
whipping. When I ran from her she took
the small boat and put off for the brig,
leaving the three of us' ashore. This hap
pened one forenoon. The two men lay
down In the shade to sleep, while I walked
along the beach to gather shells. In going
to the west, and after walking about two
miles, carrying one of the Iron rods on my
shoulder as a weapon, 1 came upon a smal
ler bay than the one the brig was lying
In. At the head of this bay was another
sandy beach, and in the center of the beach
Just at high water mark, stood a big rock
all by Itself. I advanced to this rock and
flnaly climbed upon It.
I had given up all thoughts of the treas
ure, and why the Idea came to me to make
a search here I cannot tell. I first paced
seven steps to the west and probed the
sand. Then I made It H. then 21. Then
returned to the rock and paced to the
east. At the third trial, or at 21 paces,
I was close to a large tree which had
lost most of Its branches In a hurricane.
I began prodding cn the north side of It,
where some of the roots w,ere exposed,
and I hadn’t worked live minutes before
I struck something to make my heart
Jump. I knew it wasn’t a shell or a
stone by the feel of It, and it didn't occur
to me that it might be a plank or a beam
washed up by the sea. So sure was I
that I had struck a treasure box that I
flung do-wn the rod and ran away to
fetche the sailors and the shovels.
What did my discovery amount to?
Well, we took from under the roots of
that tree four Iron banded boxes full of
Spanish dollars, being $24,000 In all. The
money, judging from the dates on the
coins and the condition of the boxes,
had been burled for at least twenty
years, and whether by pirate or someone
else we did not care. We got It aboard
the brig and got the brig to Rorto Rico
without anyone being the wiser, and
thence we sailed for home in ballast,
with Aunt Hetty acting as boss of all
hands. That we got safely home, and
that out of a Tom Fool’s errand and a
dozen misfortunes my relatives secured
a fortune in ready cash, you can satisfy
yourself by a talk with any of the old
citizens of Kennebunk. It all happened
30 years ago, but there are plenty of peo
ple still living who willrelate all the par
ticulars and give you names and dates.
—Among) the wall and fence board signs
about the Greater New York is one which
is 2,500 feet long, or nearly half a mile,
says a New York letter. It Contains let
ters 18 feet tall. It cost *7,000 to paint the
sign originally, and a pretty penny Is need
ed to keep It fresh and bright, as it hns
to be retouched once a year. Adistilltng
firm paid $5,000 for tha privilege of using
a dead wall in conspicuous part of town
the annual rental after the first year be
ing $2,500. Several ambitious business men
who double their dollars by advertising
are now fighting for the privilege of paint
ing a tall chimney which can be seen
from the bay, the East river ferries and
the elevated. It always pays to let out
siders know where you are if you are u
bidder for public patronage.
—Gen. Gordon of Georgia tells the fol
lowing story of the war period to Illus
trate the shrinkage of the confederate cur
rency: “One day a cavalryman rode Into
camp on a reasonably good horse. 'Hello,
cavalryman,’ said a foot soldier. ’l’ll give
you $3,000 for your horse. ’You go to the
bad place,’ was the hqrseman’s reply, ‘i
Just paid SI,OOO to have him curried.’ "
1 —e |J ff
—Queen Victoria one* #ald of the women
of Ireland that every third Irish woman
she saw was beautiful.
SOME MEDICAL MANIAS.
MOX*TKO*ITIES PRKSrRIDKD WITH
THE PATIEWT** COTSEXT.
Hr. /nrhnrlne. n Philosopher. Cos m -
paaml With thr Xontiu in - tlouKtr.
of i'nrmrr Times—The l*rr of
Ameri.-a anti \i otrrn Europe nu
an Eeoentrlr f'onrt K'hv.irlun.
From th* Cincinnati Enquirer.
A few months ajco the hoodlums of a
little town tn Aragon draKKed an aliened
witch In a sack till the police scattered
the mob with the squirt of a hand fire en
gine, and when the news of the affair
reached Barcelona the I,literals of that
semi-French city arranged a festival to
celebrate the auspicious sign of the times.
“What a step of progress.” said their or
ator, "since the days when that mob
would have been headed by a procession
of matahruxas (official witch hunters with
their inquisitorial experts and fagot con
tractors).
In a similar manner the friends of med
ical progress ought to appreciate the
shower bath of crlticsm which the press
of American and Western Europe Ivstow
ed upon the eccentric court physician of
the Russian autocrat. Instead of answer
ing the anxious inquiries of the exar's rel
atives, he opened every window In the
room and stamped a swarm of flunkeys.
“Get out of this!” ho growled, “the air
in here Is enough to give you the chol
era," and then proceeded to bpoll his good
work by bleeding the apopleptic emperor
within an Inch of his life. That mistake
may lead to consequence* which Russian
loyalists and French patriots will never
forgive; but what a stride of progress
since the middle of the fourteenth cen
tury, when Francesco de Piemonte estab
lished a college of stirgry at Naples,’and
frightened his nelghlsirs by exhibiting tre
panned skulls, as our dentists would dis
play a collection of slrklf-roote.l molars.
In a case of apoplexy the managers of that
Institute would have cauterized the pa
tient's spine almost to the hone, bored ills
head full of holes to relieve ills dull head
ache', and very likely gouged one of his
eyes out to give the law of gravity a
ohanre to drain the brain of its morbid
humors. The latter expedient was rec
ommended by a number of eminent
b rench and German practitioners, and
even Albrecht, the One-eyed, of Austria,
Is said to have owed his predicament to
an operation of that kind. The Naples
skull-borer also tried to cure lung dis
eases by means of superheated vapors,
and administered serpents Internally in
smallpox, though he hesitated to adopt the
plan of an earlier sage, who Inoculated
smallpox patients with a mixture of oil
and viper poison to rout the microbes, or
what lie called the invisible demons of the
epidemic.
The homicidal tendency of such methods
xtas, however, modified by the law of
self-preservation that would warn in
valids to take refuge in the woods ami
mountains, rather than fall Into the
hands of a heroic-remedy doctor, and less
atrocious Insanities may In the long run
have done a much greater amount of
actual mischief.
The Idea that the disorder of the human
organism are due to the presence of de
mons was by no means confined to the
Christian nations of the middle ages, and
agreed so perfectly with the bias of pop
ular superstition that thousands of in
valids of all creeds and countries jour
neyed to Hag<lad, where Itonnin lieu
Ishak, a famous physician of the ninth
century, drove out devils by means of
inaladorous fumes.
A mixture of garlic- and wool thu
cured a wealthy magnate from Georgia
(on the southern slopes of the Caucasus),
who presented the specialist with hts own
weight In sliver, and merely lamented
the perversity of the female mind when
one of his favorite slaves failed to re
cover her health under the Influence of
the doctor's perfumes. The failure, he
thought, must be attributed to her lack,
of faith, and the royal patron of llonain,
indeed, ordered the arrest of several mis
creants who had ventured to express a
doubt 111 the Infallibility of 'the great
pathologist. The pilgrims to the shrine
of that turbanei Aesculapius often suc
cumbed to the fatigues of the overland
Journey, or returned before they had ob
tained a sniff of his specifies,* bewailing
their fate as if they had been obliged
to turn back from the threshold of the
promised land. Abdul Abbus Hen Mer
van Iben Serachi made out prescriptions
almost as long as his name, and com
pounded on the principle that the demons
of serious disorders can he dislodged only
by the most unpalatable substances of
materia medlca. He, too, was consulted
by converts from all parts of the Med
iterranean coastlands, but ultimately fell
a victim to the Nemesis of Faith. In SM
the Caliph el Motalhed tried a specially
nauseous mixture which one of his court
iers had recommended as a curs for Indi
gestion, and Immediately ordered the ex
ecution of the responsible Inventor, who
happened to be the Illustrious A. A. K.
M. I. S. His disciples tried to revive his
system for the benefit of mankind, but
the public continued to lament the death
of the great master, and even consump
tives had to , content themselves with
such feeble imitations of the original spe
cifies as decoctions or wormwood mixed
with turpentine.
Further west the exponents of the heal
ing art at first limited themselves to sym
pathetic prescriptions. Nicolas do Itog
glo recommended the I'salms of David to
facilitate the labors of childbirth, and Jo
hannes Menardus kept a curious collec
tion of parchments Inscribed with mystic
names, unknown to historians, but high
ly efficacious as rheumatism charms In
the form of amulers, worn about the Joints
of the afflicted parts. Wounds were cured
with a list of saints and pagan dletles
(“Saturn excepted, because he devours
children"), or, "double' grosses," one for
the physical, the other for the moral part
of the affliction, In cases where the indig
nity of an assault had preyed upon the
mind of the patient.
All remedies of that sort were, however,
far eclipsed by the famous "weapon-oint
ment.” "A friar, returning from the east,”
we are told, "brought the ‘recipe to Eu
rope somewhat before the beginning of
the seventeenth century. The Grand Duke
of Florence, In which clly the friar was
residing, heard of hIH cures, and tried,
but without success, to obtain his secret.
Sir Kenelm Dlgby, an Englishman well
known to fame, was fortunate enough to
do him a favor, which wroyght upon his
feelings and induced him to impart to his
benefactor the composition of this extra
ordinary powder and the still more extra
ordinary mode of Its. application. Such
ingredients ag "powdered mummy bones”
and "moss from the skull of a thief hung
In chains" were mere trifles, compared
with mariy nostrums of that time; but In
stead of being applied to the wound the
powder, mixed With oil and human blood,
had to be rubbed upon the weapon that
had caused the injury.
"Sir Kenelm Dlgby,” continues the his
torian, "was at different times of his life
an admiral, a theologian, a critic, a met
aphysician, a politician and a dlciple of
alchemy. As is not Infrequent with versa
tile an excitable people, he caught fire at
the first spark of anew medical discov
ery. and no sooner got home to England
than ho began to spread the conflagration.
An opportunity soon olTered itself to try
the power of the famous powder, Mr. G.
Howel. having been Wounded fn a brawl,
submitted himself to a trial of the spe
tfic. Four days after hu received ids
Cni/OTrillfO -' ow at cornfr Gmmss and Whitaker Sts.,
tblXO I till 0; X,, r l5 “ 115o - 135 Br " Q8l “-
Great Removal Sale!
We are going to move in September, and will occnpy the entire building
No. l.tr Broughton Street. We will make a clean sweep ot the entire stock
at prices that will satisfy the closest buyers.
The Occasion Demands It.
Such Standard Onalities of Coods as ours are not often thrown on the
bargain counters. Our stoc kis superior to any in Savannah, but it is too
bulky to move, so it most be sold.
THIS IS A GENUINE SALE.
Not a sale of the traditional Yard Wide Bleached and Indigo Prints,
but of the BEST CLASS OF DRY COODS, tor which Gustave Eckstein & Cos!
are noted.
CATCH ON BEFORE THE RUSH.
Catch on to the Bargains in Waist Silks, Taffetas, Chinas and India Silks.
Latch on to the Bargains in Black Satins, Taffetas, tiros (.rains and Failles,
Latch on to the Bargains in Dresden Silks, Moiree, Armure and Brocades,
latch on to the Bargains in Black and Colored Crcpons, the latest elfccts.
Catch on to the Bargains in Serges, Ladies’ Cloths, Henriettas and Mohairs.
Catch on to the Bargains in Black and Colored Novelty Dress Goods.
Catch on to the Bargains in Challies—Half price pitvails ■in this lot.
Catch on to the Bargains in Dress Goods at 12 t-2c, 15c, 19c, 29c, 33c, 69c.
Catch on to the Bargains in White (ioods, Ducks, P. K., Percales and Organdies.
Catch on to the Bargains in Table Linens, Linen Sets, Napkins and Doilies.
Catch on to the Bargains in Linen and Cotton Sheets and Pillow Cases.
Catch on to the Bargains in Ladies’, Men’s and Children’s Hose and Underwear.
Catch on to the Bargains in Aprons, Corsets, Gloves, Mitts, Fans and Belts.
Catch on to the Bargains in Lace Curtains, Spreads, Blankets, Crib Quilts.
Catch on to the Bargains in Stationery, Perfumery, Laces and Embroideries.
Catch on to the Bargains in Satines, Calicoes, Ginghams, Tickings, Sheetings.
Catch on to the Bargains in Mosquito Nets, Canopies, Shirts, Neckties, Spenders
Catch on to the Bargains—this is the opportunity to get everything cheap,
SPECIAL PRICES TO DEALERS.
Shirtings and Checks by the case or bale, Hosiery, Towels, Handker
chiefs by the dozen. All Kinds ol Goods in bulk, either piece, dozens or gross
lots, at the LOWEST WHOLESALE PRICES. Merchants will find it to their
interest to call.
GUSTAVE ECKSTEIN & CO.
wounds Sir Kenelm dipped one of How
el's garters In a solution of the powder,
and, Immediately, it Is said, the wounds,
which were very painful, grew easy, al
though the patient who was conversing
In the corner of his chamber had not the
least idea of what wus being liohe with
his garter.
King .lames the First, his son Charles,
Prime Minister Hucklngham. and all the
principle personages of the time wfre cog
nizant of this fact, amt James himself he*
lug curious to know the secret of this rem
edy, asked It of Sir Kenelm, who revealed
It to him, and hts majesty hud the oppor
tunity of making several trials of Its effi
cacy, which all succeeded in a surprising
manner. The king's physician was like
wise made master of the secret which he
carried to France and communicated to the
Duke of Mayerne, who performed many
cures with It.”
Should It seem creditable that Lord
Jtacon, the Trlsmeglstus of Logie and Phil
osophy, became a convert to the belief In
the efficacy of that prescription? He
enumerates men of great credit who have
testified In Its favor, and remarks that
"lastly, It will cure a beast, as well as a
man, which 1 like Is'st of all, because It
Subjeotetrh the matter to an easy trial.”
Wounds, If left alone, will often heal
spontaneously, but the sanitary abuses
of the middle ages resulted In more ob
stinate complaints, and like Napoleon 111.
after the battle of Gruvelotte, the medi
cine men of the period tried to “elevate
their minds to the new level of the cir
cumstances.” They compounded blisters
that would draw like a Norman cart
horse. They hung patients up by the
feet, with their heads In the steam of a
witch’s caldron of herbs and roots. They
administered mineral poisons In bull doses
and they Invented alcohol. The vital elixir
of Paracelsus, 1. e., the spirits of wine
distilled to the strength of proof alcohol,
was swallowed by the pint, till the patient
saw the sky full of snakes, and If all
other remedies failed the resolute practi
tioner resorted to hi* dagger. It cannot
be denied but In fevers and similar disor
ders bleeding often seems to effect a tem
porary change for the better. Even In a
life and death struggle with a desperate
distemper, nature stops to rally the scant
reserve forces of the system for a battle
with anew enemy. The raging pulse be
comes faint, the flushed face becomes
pale. For a time the agony of pneumonia
abates, as If th 6 nerves had lost the power
to carry the sensation of pain from the
afflicted tissues to the organ of conscious
ness. As soon as the loss of the vital fluid
has to some degree been retrieved, the
Interrupted struggle with the original foe
Is resumed with diminished chances of
success, but Dr. Sangrado, encouraged by
the apparent success of the first experi
ment, was apt to repeat the venture, and
there Ib no reason to doubt Francis Bich
at's assertion that from the beginning of
the twelfth century the lancet killed more
human beings than the sword.
Dr. Holmes (Oliver W.) In one of his
medicinal lectures treated the Harvard
graduates to an anecdote about a Boston
physician who was summoned to the bed
side of a man with a terribly sore mcruth.
Inquiries elicited the fact that the man
had picked up a box of mercurial pills
on Howard street and proceeded to swal
low them on general principles—“pills be
ing good for people."
The founders of several monastic or
ders would seem to have held a similar
opinion in regard to the benefits of vene
section. The friars—sick or sound—were
subjected to semi-monthly bleedings, and
many mediaeval printing houses pub
lished almanacs (Aderlag's Kalcnder, or
"Blood-letting Calendars") that recom
mended phlebtomy for all possible emer
gencies of daily life. Not fevers only, but
surfeits, headaches, drowsiness, rheuma
tism, colic, hysteria, melancholy, fits of
anger, obstinacy and dullness In chil
dren, homesickness, lovesickness and dia
bolic visions (naturally a frequent result
of mediaeval bill of fare) but also as &
precautionary measure for the possible ef
fects of warm weather, storms, exciting
news—good or bad—fright, eclipses of the
sun and moon and unfavorable constella
tions of tho planets. For more than four
weeks few family fathers trusted them
selves to dispense with the operation, and
at the end of each month the surgical bar
bers literally painted the town red.
Asa consequence, scrofula, one of the
most obstinate disorders, came to be con
sidered a comparatively curable affliction.
Scrofula patients were compelled to taka
long Journeys In wind and weather to
qiiufr Hie water* of special springs, op
subject themselves to the touch of a le
gitimate despot, but they were not re
quired to get themselves bled, and thus got
a far better ehane.e of recovery than thou
sands of sufferers from complaints orig
inally, but aggravated by the results ot
the International delusion.
That the population of Christian Europa
could Increase at all, or not decrease faster
than It did, attests the hades-proof const!-'
tut lon of the Caucasian race, which may;
also be Inferred from the fact that any*
human beings could survive the customary'
cure of St. Vitus dance. When a victim
of the dancing mania felt down exhausted-.)
charitable bystanders, as Dr. flecker in-;!
forms us, availed themselves of the favora-d
bio opportunity to perform a pa* de seut ■
upon the sick man’s abdomen, stamping;
away with main and might to expel the re- 1
sponsible demons and noxious gases. '
But even that procedure was kindness
compared with the treatment of other
mental disorders. The evil spirits of such*
affections being specially tricksy and elu
sive Imps, their living boarding house wag
attacked from within and without. Tha
patient, chained down like a mad wolf,
was blistered and thrashed, while his bow
els were convulsed with antimony and nos
tril* with powdered pungencies. Dellrloua
and despondent patients were frequently
mistaken for lunatics, and drugged by*
main force to the madhouse, where a,
week's course of the routine cure was apt
to make them as actually crazy as their
keepers.
"Isopathy,” the Idea of curing disease*
by the administration of their own viruit
(pestilence with the purulent matter of
plague boils, dysentery with faecal fluids,
etc.,) was hailed In more than one country
as a gospel of physical salvation—a fact!
less Incredible If we remember that each
one of the following delusions counted Its
converts by hundreds of thousands:
Persuading patients to crawl over or un
der the coffln of a saint, a recipe which.
In 1.142, Induced even the philosopher Con
rad of Megensberg to walk from Vienna
to Regensburg for the sole purpose of
creeping under the tomb of St. Erhard,
while a quartet of choir boys sang a hymn
of bis own composition. The theory that
the blood of an executed criminal Is a
sovereign remedy for epilepsy—for centu
ries a belief so nearly universal that it
greatly Increased the emoluments of Jack
Ketch & Cos. The belief In love phlltera.
The far spread faith In "elixirs of youth.’*
The tar water cure, originated by Bishop
Berkeley, "that great and good man," aa
Holmes calls him, "who had somehow got
afflicted with two very Strang ideas—viz,
that tar water was everything and tho
whole material universe nothing.
—Are Visiting Lists Too Long?—Mrs.
De Fashion (average society lady, making
her round of calls owing to average society
friends)—ls Mrs. Wiggins Van Mortlando
at home?
Servant—No, madam, she’s
Mrs. De Fashion—Please hand her my
card when she returns.
Servant— She won’t return, madam Sha
was burled a month ago.—New York
Weekly.
—An English commercial traveler named
Browning has distinguished himself in
Paris by buying a photograph of President
Faure at the news stand and tearing It to
pieces. Hts defense was that it bored
him to see so many photographs of tha
president.
—"What makes ’em call Boston the hub'*’*
"I guess It’s became It’s such a center for
wheels." replied the vulgarian who thirka
Browning la nonsense.— Washington Star,
11